Featherbrain
by lyons-butt
Summary: Luffy; homeless and hungry. Ace; pessimistic and lonely. The two meet in the cafe where Ace works one night, and Ace, noticing how dirty and feeble Luffy was, invited him to stay with him. Luffy struggles every day to survive because the only life he knew was on the streets. See how Ace helps Luffy and helps him discover who he is. *YAOI in later chapters*
1. Chapter 1

**Acelu Fanfiction  
Yaoi/Lemon**

**Italicizing = events  
Normal text = explaining  
You'll get it once you start reading. ;p**

**Featherbrain**

watch?v=2iO8wQ9PZZg

Chapter 1:

Luffy's POV:

"YOU DIRTY PIECE OF SHIT! GET!" the man screamed at me, heaving rocks at my direction, aiming for my head. Running and running... and that's how I got here.

_ My mother couldn't keep me around. She was a drug addict and could barely focus on getting clean, let alone a 3 week old child. I can still remember some things that she'd tell me before I went to bed; "The boogy man gets you, and when he does, he won't let you go. Make sure he doesn't get you. Fight your heart out, even if it means getting hurt, Luffy. I love you, darling." I'm not totally sure if that was a positive quote of hers or a negative one. Around the age of 3 is when she cracked. She eventually killed herself, but in front of me. A child filled with potential and innocence... she killed the only thing he knew... in front of his own eyes. _

_ So, that's when I became an orphan. My father was out of the picture for whatever the reason. My relatives hated my mother, didn't even know who I was and particularly didn't care either. I was alone. For the first few weeks of my mother's death, I wandered the streets. I was never taught anything by her, so I was a pretty dopey child. I couldn't count, I couldn't read, I was never potty-trained; I didn't even know my own name! _

_ That's when it all happened. My life began on September 24th. _

_ I was strolling down by the dockyard and somehow ventured out too far. I wanted to touch the water, so I ran over rocks without any shoes, sprinting, racing, running..._

_ I tripped._

_ I fell. _

_ When I awoke, I was in the hospital. It was a stifling smell that suffocated my lungs that will always stick with me. I was wrapped in a sort of sheet kind of material, and I had some kind of wires stuck in me. I was drowsy and sore. "Hello, sweetie!" a lady says to me, "How are you feeling?" _

_ "Eh?" I didn't know how to talk. _

_ "Can you talk?" I just looked back at her. She sighed and wandered into the hall. Moments later she arrived with a tall, thin man, gawking back at me. He had waxy looking hair with a dull tone to it. His eyes were crusty and his breath reeked of coffee. _

_ "Hey." I started laughing. He made me really happy, he seemed like a nice person. She looked at the nurse and smiled at her. She whispered to him and he nodded. "Can you say, 'mama'?" I began to laugh again. He grimaced. He saw my size and my mature outlook. He approximated my age to around 4 years of age, set me up with a Special Education Counselor and submitted me to an orphanage. _

_ Once I arrived at the orphanage, the smell of fish and soap clogged my nose. Screams and shouts were all I heard, and violent noises and shattering and banging... It seemed so scary. I looked up at the Special Ed. lady and looked at her with sorrowful eyes. She smiled at me and guided me to the owner. "Hello, miss. I'd like to speak to you about this young man." The 'miss' was smoking a joint and tricking a can of dented Pepsi. Her hair was graying and her eyes were saggy. The councilor lady led me to the lobby area, and told me that she'd be back soon. When she left me alone, I ran._

"YOU DIRTY PIECE OF SHIT! GET!" the man screamed at me, heaving rocks at my direction, aiming for my head. Running and running... and that's how I got here.

"Hahahaha! Fuck yourself old man!" I stuck my tongue out at him, sandwich in hand, flailing my arms as I ran away. Once I hit seven, I encountered a small boy digging in the same trash bin as me.

_"HEY! You there!" I look up with a piece of dirty bread in my mouth, smiling. "This is MY bin!" I frown. He seemed upset. _

_ "E…e..you…ya…" I said smiling. He looks at me, and begins to chuckle. _

_ "Can you not talk?" I nod. He widens his eyes, walks over to me and looks at me dead in the eye, "Do you want to learn?" He grinned. "My name is Sabo."_

My encounter with Sabo was miraculous. It's because of him that I know how to speak and communicate and count (but not well). I am now twenty years of age, a young adult with loads of memories and encounters that will never leave me.

But, the biggest encounter of my life was when I met Portgas D. Ace, the most important person to me.

Chapter 2:

_Holy shit, I'm hungry. I can't stop thinking about food. Now that it's the winter, it always gets hard to find food to eat and a place to lay my head. I knew that it wouldn't take long for the winters viciously cold winds to tear me apart, so I quickly departed to the closest store. Everything was close because of the winter holidays. I began to lose hope._

_In the vast expedition on trying to find somewhere to warm up, I treaded through the thick snow, stumbling upon a cute little coffee shop. The sign said _Closed _but there was a man inside. He was tall, muscular and taught. I wandered in, for more than one reason. Bells chimed as I entered the shop, forcing him to turn and investigate the visitor. _

Ace's POV:

What an adorable soul. His immense brown eyes were a story book to me. I gulped as he approached me, "Is it okay if I stay in here for a bit to warm up?" I subconsciously nodded like a fool and allowed him to sit and rest. _Why was he here? It's midnight and he looks underage. _

"Uh, would you like some coffee?" I chimed, hoping he'd accept my offer so I could grant him a small token of appreciation.

"What's caw free?" He replies, I couldn't help but snicker. I cleared my throat after realizing my girly retort and answered,

"You've never had coffee before? How old are you anyway?" I say rather sternly. That didn't bother him one bit. He seemed thrilled to have someone to talk to, and that softened my heart.

"I don't really know if I'm sixtenth or sevententh" he giggled. I look at him perplexed,

"Don't you mean sixteen or seventeen? And how don't you know your age? You must know how old you are." I say lazily. He smiles at me widely and explains,

"You see, I grew up without a family, so I never really knew how old I was. Just guessing!" He snickers, "Oh, by the way, you have stuff in your hair!" I panic. _How can I ALLOW myself to look so IDIOTIC?! _I comb out the whip cream hastily and try to act like it was nothing.

"Yeah, that was just whip cream. But anyways, would you like some coffee, sir?" I inquired politely. I wanted to seem as nice as possibl-

_Wait! Am I gay?!_

"Sure. If it's food then of course I'll have some. Do you have any sandwiches?" He asked, so tranquil and subtle. Butterflies fluttered around my abdomen as he stared at me. I choked.

"I, uh… u-uh i-t's kind of... l-late…" I would cook a buffet for him, but the owner would be so angry. He seems so helpless, though. His large eyes… looking for life… looking for a purpose. "You can come over to my place if you want to...?" It's only mannerism, right?

"REALLY? Wow, that's awesome! Thanks!" He jumps up and runs over to me, grabbing me in a snug embrace, rubbing his face against my chest. My face felt so hot. "We can be friends, ok?!" I smile at the smaller boy and grin widely. I begin to giggle, he looks up, "What's so funny?"

"Uh, nothing." I brush it off. "So, are you coming or what?" I gently push him away. He recovers and smiles,

"Of COURSE I am!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Luffy's POV:

Ace wakes me up with the smell of food cooking. How delightful. I open my eyes and peer around my new home. A small apartment, close to his work. Red rugs and black and white curtains, incense burning, candles all around, cigarette smoke and worn down sofas and tables. I rise up and noticed something; last night was the first time in ages that I had properly cleaned myself.

_I walk into his bathroom, naked. "Luffy!" he says, startled. I beam brightly at him. "Uh... ahem, let me run the bath for you." _

_"What's a baff?" I ask, unintelligently. He smirks, _

_"It's _bath _you goof." He smiles, "Would you like me to help you wash yourself?"_

_"Okay, lace!" I shout. Ace grimaces and sighs,_

_"It's _Ace_. Not lace." He corrects me, sternly. I frown._

_"Sorry, friend." A cherry tint washes over his freckles. He looks like a nice guy. A really nice guy...a really cute guy, too!_

_"Uh, okay. The bath is ready, want to get in now?" He invites me to sit down in the tub full of fluffy bubbles and purple body wash. I nod respectfully and test the water with my toes. I wince because of the temperature. "Ah, my bad. I'm used to hot baths. Would you like me to make it colder-_

_"No! If you can stand this, I can too!" I insist. His face glows with interest. He sighs and helps me in so I dont slip. He takes me by my waist and makes sure I'm stable. I gives me a small cloth and a bar of soap. I stare at the two. "What are they?" _

_"Soap and a cloth. You run the cloth under the water, rub that," he points at the soap, "all over the cloth, and finally rub the slippery cloth all over your body." I don't blink._

_"Could you just do it for me?" I recommend. I hear him gulp. _

_"S-sure." He pulls the cloth and soap out of my hands, kneels down beside me and lathers up the small rag. I begin to whistle quite poorly and he laughs and whistles along with me. Soothingly he strokes my body, cleaning me and delicately washing my hair. "Geez, your hair was really dirty." He comments, wrapping my lower half with a towel. It took him a few tries; he tried not to look at my package._

"Luffy!" Ace calls for me, probably about breakfast. I run over to his voice and see him shirtless, with a black apron on, cooking steamed rice and blending smoothies. I swallow hard. His back muscles obtrude and his pants are barely hugging his waist. He swiftly spins around with a smile, "Do you like rice?" I nod cheerfully, and he guides me to an old table, handing me a pair of chopsticks. I look at them with furrowed eyebrows.

"Are these toothbrushes?" I ponder. He grins as he clarifies how to properly use them. After a few tries I start to get the hang of it. I eat all of my food before Ace is finished, then I start to prance around, antsy for something to do.

"Go watch TV. I'll be in there in a second." He nods his head towards the living room. Since I had no idea how to operate the machine, he turns it on to a reasonable channel until he was ready to join me. I heard the water running, so I just watched it by myself. I plop onto his sofa, decked out with blankets and cushions, and I began to focus on the television. As I was watching the TV, I shifted my position and the channel changed on me. "Gaah!" I moan to myself, trying to fix it. I thought I had broke it.

"You okay, Luffy?" He hollers at me, I gulp,

"Y-yeah! It's all okay!" I stutter back. I panic. I try pressing buttons but then it changed to another channel, it seemed okay. I stopped to see what was going on. A man was on top of another man sharing a very intimate moment with each other. The bottom man was groaning and was biting the top guys lip. I scratch my head in confusion.

"WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING!?" Ace screams as he sees what's on.

"But they're happy! Aren't you happy?" Both males are gasping for air now, squeezing each other tighter and tighter, and the top one got shirtless. Ace's face got flustered and pink; he kept rubbing his hands onto his pants to keep the moisture off.

"You shouldn't be watching this." He demanded, sternly looking into my eyes. Even from across the room I could feel the warmth from his face. The men on the screen were now both completely nude.

"Are they going to have a shower?" Ace covers his face and scurries over. I sit on the remote, making the television to blare.

"LUFFY! GIVE ME THE REMOTE!"

"_Uhhhh, mmmmm... mmmmmm..._" the men on the screen were so loud that I could barely hear him.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE TEEFEE?!" I try to shout over the noise, "IT SEEMS OK TO ME!" Ace stops. I can feel him shaking. He rises from his seat and manually turns off the television. I sigh, "Why did you turn it off? I don't understand, Lace, they were okay and happy. Why did you want to turn it off so badly? Huh?" I pressured him. He slowly walked towards me as he spoke; "It was embarrassing having to see that when there's somebody I want to experience that with."

Ace's POV

I didn't know whether or not I was having a panic attack or I was just so humiliated that I was just quivering from the nervousness. Everything was shaking. My toes, my liver, even the skin cells on my back. I was a wreck. Breathing felt abnormal. All I could do was stare at the gorgeous young man and tell him the truth. He barely knows anything, why not know what I think of him... right?

"Do you find it normal for two men to be in love?" I inquire, voice quivering but trying not to stutter. He smiles so wide that his eyes close and he starts to giggle.

"Yeah! It's ok! If they're happy then why not?"

"Why not what?"

"Why not be together?" I felt tears well up. My blood pressure rose. I clambered onto his seat and dove into his chest, tears bleeding from my eyes. I was hiccupping, sobbing, moaning, screaming, everything... I was miserable.

"L-luffy. I-I want to t-tell you that you are s-so beautifu-ul... you are a miracle. I-I haven't known you long" I reached for a kleenex, blew my nose and proceeded, "but I want you to stay with m-me, ok? I have nobody..." I covered my face as I sobbed in front of the small little boy. Miserable? More like despondent, depressed, lonely, wretched... every negative emotion filled me till all I did was cry my sadness away. But the more I cried, the worse I felt. Nothing helped. "I have NO ONE!" I wrap my shaking arms around his small frame and I cried into his limber chest, firm and thin.

"...Ace?"


End file.
